Billionaire Washington Takes Megayacht to Visit Billionaire McCaw

Brendan Coffey
, ContributorI wrote for Forbes from 2000 thru 2011. I work for someone else now.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

There's nothing like taking a 328-foot megyacht to visit your billionaire friend on his private

A pleasant way to drop in on friends. A file photo of the Attessa IV courtesy of SuperYachts.com

island. American construction and mining billionaire Dennis Washington is back on the seas again with his recently rebuilt megayacht, now christened the Attessa IV. Washington commanded the vessel to the Vancouver area's James Island this week to visit pal and fellow billionaire Craig McCaw on his private island retreat. The Vancouver Sun spied the ship Thursday, as their story details.

"We tried real hard to keep the project as quiet as possible, but of course now that it's out it's going to be everywhere," Atessa IV captain Ted McCumber told the paper. Continues the Sun:

The Attessa IV is the third mega-yacht to be refitted for Washington in the Vancouver shipyards by a company created to specialize in the luxury market, Washington Yachting Group, but which McCumber said has primarily worked on his boss's own boats.

Attessa III, a mere 68 metres [223 feet], had been damaged in a fire and was rebuilt in the shed that was home for the construction of the Pacificats, the ill-fated fast ferries that were supposed to revitalize the BC Ferries fleet and relaunch the shipbuilding industry in B.C. Instead, the fast ferries helped sink the NDP government and have since served as a poster boy for the folly of government intervention in private business.

In a London boat show in the fall, Washington's Atessa won the prize for 'best rebuilt yacht.' It has a swimming pool, two helipads and "untold luxury" in the cabin, according to Sun writer Craig McInnes, who was apparently only allowed to tour the deck while Washington and McCaw hung out on James Island. Full specs of the yacht are here.